Administrative Core

University Of Michigan At Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor MI

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

The Administrative Core will provide the overarching and coherent administrative leadership and organization of the proposed Michigan Center for Urban African American Aging Research (MCUAAAR). The Center's efforts will be mobilized in order to: 1) increase understanding of the social and behavioral correlates of health disparities; 2) promote health among racial and ethnic minority and disadvantaged populations; 3) improve understanding of the ways in which health disparities emerge and are maintained; 4) develop innovative strategies to reduce these health disparities; and, 5) implement effective methods for training the next generation of minority social and behavioral health scientists needed for these efforts. The Administrative Core will provide the broad administrative and evaluative framework, including organizing the multidisciplinary research and training components of the MCUAAAR into a coherent entity, capable of smoothly functioning within the complex organizational structures of the University of Michigan, Wayne State University, other university settings, and our partnering community based organizations. The specific aims of the Administrative Core are designed to: 1) Monitor the day-to-day operation of the Center and coordinate the interactive functions of the other Center Cores. It will also provide budgetary oversight and monitor personnel functions within the Center; 2) Serve as a point of first contact to support any groups, internal or external to our Universities, interested in the various issues of racial/ethnic health disparities research on older populations. It will also work with the Investigator and Community Cores to provide information resources assembled by the faculty and scholars (website information platform, media sources, speaking engagements, literature and brochures, etc.), in order to promote the Center's mission of identifying ways of improving public policy outreach and the health of older minority individuals; 3) Monitor the training functions that extend across the entire Center: while recruitment, mentoring, and summer training are lodged mainly in the Investigator Development Core, the measurement and methods, community outreach and participation, and public policy dissemination training responsibilities are lodged in other Core areas; and, 4) Assume responsibility for the overall evaluation of the effectiveness of the MCUAAAR: including the functioning of the MCUAAAR Participant Resource Pool procedures and database, and the periodic evaluations of the performance of the scholars during and following their formal participation as pilot investigators.